


Cat Genetics 101

by GwynCat



Category: Original - Fandom, Science - Fandom
Genre: his name is Tyrion, my cat is cuddling me as I wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:40:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22106452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GwynCat/pseuds/GwynCat
Summary: I write a three page essay on Cat genetics for my 8th grade Science class, so I decided to put it on Archive.however I have edited it because something didn't make sense so I changed it.
Kudos: 1





	Cat Genetics 101

**Author's Note:**

> In my 8th grade Science my teacher gave us an end of the year assignment ; write a three page essay or power point about any science topic we want, me and my partner choose to do Cat genetics.

Do you know why Tortoiseshell/Calico cats are almost always female? With the exception of white coloring, Fur pigment is controlled by the X chromosome. Because of this, female cats can display more than one fur color ( with the exception of albinism and white spotting.

How does genetics work? Everyone knows you get a chromosome form each parent.If the mom ( the Queen or Dam) is a tortoiseshell and the Dad ( the Tom or Sire ) is an orange cat, theoretically ; a female kitten has a fifty percent chance of being a Tortoiseshell and fifty percent Orange. And a boy kitten? Male kittens have a fifty/fifty chance of become either orange or black. There is however white spotting/albinism and chimerism/Klinefelter syndrome, which will be explained later. 

With the exception of white, there are four dominate fur colors; Orange,black,chocolate,and cinnamon. Black fur is he most dominate trait followed by chocolate and cinnamon which are genetic mutations of black. Orange is more dominate than black since its a masking gene like white. Because black is dominate to orange it won't be possible for two black cats to have a torti or an orange tabby. It would be possible for two black cats to have a chocolate furred cat since chocolate is recessive to black.Tortoiseshells and Calicos aren't limited to black and orange, they can have any combination of furs colors.

Dilution.What is it?. All dilution does is make the fur a lighter color.Grey, for example, is black with the dilution gene. The dilution gene is a recessive trait, so it requires both parents to pass the gene in order for it to be a phenotype. Dilution fur colors; ginger,grey,lilac,and fawn. Dilution fur colors are recessive to the basic fur colors.

The Genetics for white fur is complicated. There are many kinds of white, but we are going to focus on the main three; white spotting,color-points and Albinism.

White is the most dominate trait.It is able to mask any fur pigment trait and it isn't carried through the X chromosome, so both male and female cat inherit white spotting. No white spotting is a Homozygous trait, Only one of the parents need white spotting for their kittens to inherit it. 

White spotting is different than a dominate white cat or "gloving gene". White spotting doesn't completely mask all the fur pigment just most of it.There are Ten levels of white spotting. They have been put into two categories. Low grade which is less than half and High grade which is more than half. The Cats with 50% spotting are called Bi colors. Ones with only their paws white are Mitted, and the ones with paws and chest are Tuxedos.

It's common knowledge that albinism is the absence of pigment on a living thing. Albinism is a recessive trait, meaning both parents need to carry the allele for albinism to be possible. The easiest way to tell the difference between a white cat and a albino are their eyes. An albino cat is limited to blue,pink or purple eyes while white cats have a wider range in colors including heterochromia. Another way to tell is by their parents gloving gene/white spotting is dominate so it shows up in at least one of the parents while a bloodline can carry the albinism gene for generations without showing up.

Pure white cats w/ blue,purple or pink eyes isn't the only type of albinism. Oriental cats like Siamese,Burmese and Tonkinese have partial albinism. The pigment of the color-points always concentrate on the colder parts of the cats body; the face,tail,ears and paws.

One of the most common fur patterns is the tabby.Since its so common, there is a wide variety such as the mackerel tabby, spotted tabby,ticked tabby,classic tabby,blotched tabby, tabbico and false tabby.

Just like the basic fur colors,there is a hierarchy of dominance.Ticked is the most dominant, the mackerel and the classic tabby being the more recessive. There isn't enough information ( when i wrote this essay ) to find a place for the spotted and patched tabby in the hierarchy. 

The gene that gives the tabbies their stripes is called the agouti gene. The agouti gene is a incomplete dominant, meaning it can be mixed with many other cat patterns to make a variety of fur types and patterns. A good example is a Tabbico, which is a calico that has tabby stripes on the black and orange patches.

There's a trait called the " silver gene" that reduces the production of pheomelanin ( red or orange ) in a cat's fur. It is a masking/dominant trait meaning it needs only one allele to reduce coloration. The silver trait can appear in any cat. Scientists believe that this trait predates the development of cat breeds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Torti- Tortoiseshell  
> Phenotype- physical traits ex: blue eyes  
> Homozygous - has two (same) alleles of a trait  
> Alleles- gene  
> Heterochromia- a genetic mutation that causes two different colored eyes  
> Incomplete dominant- tends to blend with the other allele to make a different trait  
> \- ex; red allele + brown allele = auburn hair

**Author's Note:**

> I got 112% on it ( the highest grade)


End file.
